Finder to the Node: TPG rules the speed race while NBN Co employees get bonuses… or fired
The NBN is paying bonuses and shuffling staff numbers, while some internet providers rejoice in the ACCC's latest speed report in our round-up of all the week's NBN news.
TPG feels the need for evening speed, but sub-wholesalers may have the brakes on
The ACCC released its third Measuring Broadband Australia report this week, and as far as the competition regulator is concerned, the NBN news is good, especially for TPG.
The ACCC's speed monitoring found that most NBN users hit 84-89% of their peak speeds, irrespective of their NBN speed tier.
That was true even during the busy evening "peak" periods, where the CVC allocations of each NBN RSP are generally tested hard. TPG NBN topped out the list, with 88.7% availability of advertised speeds generally, and 88.4% during evening times.
"We are pleased that the Measuring Broadband Australia program is being taken very seriously by internet service providers and is delivering noticeable improvements to customers’ broadband speeds," ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
"We encourage customers who aren’t getting the speeds they expected to contact their internet service provider to see if they need to change plans," he stated.
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However, as ITNews noted, the report also identified an issue for those using NBN retailers who get their links from other RSPs. So called sub-wholesalers aren't getting a direct NBN connection, and as a result their speed profiles are on average 7.9% lower than those who use a direct connection.
There are only a handful of NBN internet providers using a wholesale arrangement — Kogan Broadband notably uses Vodafone's NBN links, for example. However, the ACCC does note that its reading is off a very small sample size of just 31 readings.
You can use finder's broadband speed test right now to test your own NBN connection right here.
Bonuses for some NBN Co employees, redundancies for others
If you're a senior executive at NBN Co, you're likely sitting on a big fat bonus right now. ITNews reports that, among the details in NBN Co's annual report, senior executives received $1.96 million in bonuses.
Across the entire company staff, $42.78 million was spent on bonuses, but that's actually way down from the previous year, where bounties amounted to $60.04 million.
It's not quite such rosy news if you're in the network engineering and operations division. ITNews got the scoop on this one, noting that some 200 jobs will be cut, although 100 more will be created at the same time, so overall NBN Co will be down some 100 staff.
Finder to the Node is a weekly round-up of all the latest news surrounding Australia's complex National Broadband Network.
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